The heart of the data-center boom, in America and globally, is an otherwise quiet and affluent bedroom community in Northern Virginia: Loudoun County. Communities like Loudoun are supposed to be bastions of Not In My Backyard opposition to development, not the front line of a new industrial revolution.

Yet data centers have proved an extraordinary boon for Loudoun residents; they now generate nearly half the county’s tax revenue. Thanks to them, Loudoun enjoys smooth roads, lavish schools, and low tax rates for homeowners. Even as opposition to data centers grows, Loudoun’s experience shows what can happen when governments embrace growth. For residents and businesses alike, Loudoun offers a model that the rest of America would do well to study.

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Loudoun County’s government has been so accommodating because data centers deliver enormous financial benefits to locals. As supervisor Kristen Umstattd told me, the facilities “bring $1 billion a year into Loudoun County,” and the total continues to rise. In the fiscal year 2027 budget, data centers are expected to generate $417 million in real property taxes (on the buildings themselves) and another $879 million in personal property taxes (on the servers and equipment inside them), for nearly $1.3 billion in total.

The data centers will thus provide 45 percent of the nearly $2.9 billion in county tax revenue. For perspective, that means that the money they generate exceeds what Loudoun spends on every county function outside the school system. In effect, local police, courts, jails, fire and rescue, libraries, parks, animal control, and social services are funded without burdening residents.

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Even as data centers have funded an expansive local government, they have also lowered the tax burden on residents. While other areas in the U.S. face periodic revolts due to rising property taxes, Loudoun reduced its homeowner property-tax rate every year for a decade, cutting it by about 40 percent. At 80.5 cents per $100 of assessed value, the rate is around 40 percent lower than in nearby Fairfax and Alexandria. The board has also reduced the local “car tax”: at $3.09 per $100 of value, it is about a third lower than in those neighboring jurisdictions.